Gareth Edwards Talks about Deleted Scenes from Rogue One

It seems that we are getting more news now about Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, than we get before the movie debuted in theaters last December. Now Fandango is getting in on the interview action with Gareth Edwards, and spoke with him, concerning fan’s expectations of deleted scenes from Rogue One included on the film’s upcoming Blu-ray release.

When asked about deleted scenes in the film, Gareth had this to say:

“There’s not an individual scene that you can drag and drop and put on a Blu-ray,” he said. “There are little things that would come and go during the process of post-production, but they’re not scenes. They’re more moments within the scenes, or a single shot. So it’s impossible to be able to do that, and that’s why the decision was made.”

“The stuff people talk about, like what they saw in the trailer, they’re not scenes you can just put on a DVD. They’re moments within scenes and threads, and you pull a thread and it all changes. It was changing the whole time. It’s not like there was one version and then there was this other version — it was like this thing that incrementally evolved constantly through all of post-production and didn’t stop until there was a gun at our heads and we were forced to release the movie.”

When asked about the iconic shot from the trailer with the TIE Fighter raising up in the clouds to confront Jyn, the Rogue One director gave reasons for that scene to not be included:

“Yeah, it’s going to have to remain a myth because it’s sort of the thing where you’re trying ideas out to find the right version of the movie, and at the same time marketing is getting excited about certain shots and moments. Eventually you’ll see something presented to you and you’ll be like, wait a minute, this shot is no longer in the film.”

Remember that scene from the trailer with Jyn and Cassian running across a beach with the Death Star plans? Gareth discusses the chances of seeing that one as well:

Edwards added that we’ll never see an alternate version of that Scarif battle for a pretty simple reason: “The visual effects were never finished on it,” he said. “It’s not like there’s something sitting somewhere. I feel like making a film is like a sport where someone blows a whistle and that’s it — the score is what it is. And the goal is to win. If I could go back and do the film knowing what I know now, the final film would be completely different. I’d probably be willing to make Star Wars for the next ten years and never let go of it — constantly trying to finesse and find new ideas. But at some point it stops, and it is the movie. The film that got released, I feel like that is the film, and everything else is just the process of making it.”

Experience Rogue One: A Star Wars Story again — and go behind the scenes with a galaxy of bonus features — when the thrilling tale of rebellion comes home on Digital HD (March 24) and Blu-ray 3D, Blu-ray, DVD, and On-Demand (April 4).

A Star Wars fan since 1978, he has a passion for all things Star Wars and wonders why May the 4th is not a national holiday. He lives in the wastelands of middle Georgia with his wife, two girls, and two dogs.